Bill Baar's West Side

David Harsanyi: We-Don't-Want-to-Talk-About-It-Gate

2009-12-04T05:52:00.001-06:00

Harsanyi writing today,

Americans honor the courageous informant, the gutsy citizen who stands against the savagery of the profit-mongering conglomerate. Well, sometimes. It appears, believe it or not, that there are those who aren't religiously tethered to this sacred obligation.

For now -- because of revelations of the ClimateGate scandal, in which hacked e-mails revealed discussions among top climate scientists about the manipulation of evidence -- Phil Jones, head of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in Britain, has stepped down from his position. Michael Mann, architect of the famous "hockey stick" graph, is now under investigation by Pennsylvania State University. Similar inquiries should follow.

More over the weekend on Climategate. Way too much money was being dished out not to be suspect about global warming. Now it seems use skeptics had plenty to be skeptical about.

Shabaab suicide attack in Mogadishu

2009-12-04T05:40:00.000-06:00

WARNING: Very Graphic video via Al Jessera but worth viewing by anyone who believes there are nonviolent althernatives to dealing with Radical Muslims who will do this to fellow Muslims. H/T Bill Roggio,

Al Jazeera provides footage of the Shabaab suicide attack in Mogadishu, Somalia. The bomber detonated at a graduation ceremony for medical students.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/videos/2009/12/shabaab_suicide_attack_in_moga.php#ixzz0Yie3sFR4

Iraqi reporter hurls shoe at Montazer Zaidi

2009-12-04T05:29:00.003-06:00

Via Alsumaria TV,

An Iraqi journalist threw his shoe on Tuesday at Iraqi reporter Montazer Al Zaidi who was imprisoned for throwing his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush.
The shoe hit the wall next to Al Zaidi’s head. The attacker accused Al Zaidi of siding with dictatorship.

Following the incident, Al Zaidi argued that he threw his shoe at occupation not at a fellow Iraqi citizen.

منتظر الزيدي يُضرَب بفردتي حذاء بعد سنة من قيامه برمي بوش بحذائه
الأربعاء 02 كانون الأول 2009 06:52 GMT

أقدم الصحافي العراقي سيف الخياط على ضرب مراسل قناة البغدادية منتظر الزيدي بفردتي حذائه أثناء عقد الأخير ندوة في العاصمة الفرنسية باريس عصر اليوم عن واقع الإعلام في العراق، وتزامن الحادث مع الذكرى الأولى لرمي الزيدي فردتي حذائه على الرئيس الأميركي السابق جورج بوش.

وكان الزيدي قام بالاعتداء على الرئيس الأمريكي جورج بوش برميه بفردتي حذائه ونعته بـ"الكلب" في شهر كانون الأول من عام 2008 أثناء مؤتمر صحافي مشترك عقده الرئيس الأمريكي جورج وبوش ورئيس الوزراء العراقي نوري المالكي في بغداد.

وقال الخياط في حديث لـ"السومرية نيوز" إن قيامه برمي فردتي حذائه على الزيدي جاء "بسبب تنظيم البعثيين للمؤتمر الذي أقامه اليوم الثلاثاء في العاصمة باريس فضلا عن تسميته للجماعات الإرهابية بالمقاومة خلال المؤتمر"، بحسب قوله، مشيرا إلى أن المؤتمر نظم من قبل الإعلامي العراقي سعد المسعودي، الذي وصفه الخياط بأنه "احد عناصر مخابرات نظام صدام حسين السابق".

واعتبر الخياط أن "الزيدي تجاوز على الصحافيين العراقيين واتهمهم بعدم الحيادية ومحاولة تمرير المشروع الأمريكي في العراق"، وروى قائلا "قمت وسألت الزيدي عن سبب الحفاوة السورية به وسبب وتسميته الجماعات الإرهابية بأنها مقاومة، ثم رميت فردتي حذائي عليه، وصحت بصوت عال إنها لك يا زيدي من الصحافيين العراقيين الأحرار".

وأشار الخياط إلى أن شقيق الزيدي وبعض الحرس الذي يرافقونه فضلا عن منظم المؤتمر سعد المسعودي "حاولوا الاعتداء" عليه، إلا انه رفع احد الكراسي مهددا إياهم بـ"الضرب" في حال الاقتراب منه، بحسب ما قال.

ولفت الخياط إلى أن رميه للزيدي بالحذاء جاء لـ"إفشال مخطط البعثيين للتمدد بين الإعلاميين في باريس فضلا عن إسكات صوت معاد للتجربة الديمقراطية في العراق" بحسب تعبيره.

يذكر أن الخياط عمل في عدة مؤسسات إعلامية عراقية خلال الأعوام الأربعة الماضي مثل قناتي الفيحاء والعراقية فضلا عن كونه مراسلاً لوكالة الأنباء اليابانية قبل أن يقرر طلب اللجوء في فرنسا والإقامة فيها نهاية عام 2008.

A google translation,

December 02, 2009 06:52 GMT

Senior Iraqi journalist Saif al-Khayat to hit the channel Baghdadiya correspondent Zaidi threw his shoes during a recent seminar in the French capital this afternoon about the reality of the media in Iraq, the incident coincided with the anniversary of the first to throw Zaidi pair of shoes at the former American President George W. Bush.

Zaidi was the assault on President George W. Bush throw threw his shoes and calling him a "dog" in December of 2008 during a joint press conference held by President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad.

Khayat said in an interview with "Alsumaria News" that he threw his shoes on al-Zaidi was "due to the organization of the Baathists, who hosted the conference on Tuesday in Paris as well as the designation of terrorist groups, resistance during the conference," he says, pointing out that the conference organized by the Media Iraqi Saad al-Masoudi, which he described as a tailor "one of the intelligence elements of the regime of Saddam Hussein's former regime."

He said that the tailor, "Zaidi, bypassing the Iraqi journalists and accused them of neutrality and try to pass the American project in Iraq," Roy said, "you asked Zaidi about the reason for the Syrian hospitality, and the reason and name of terrorist groups as resistance, then the pair of shoes thrown at him, loudly it true you, Maximize the journalists free Iraqis. "

He pointed out that the tailor's brother Zaidi and some guards accompanying him as well as conference organizer Saad al-Masoudi, "tried to assault" on it, but he lifted a chair, threatening them with "beating" in the event of approaching him, according to what he said.

He pointed out that the tailor to throw Zaidi shoe came to "the failure of the Baathists planned expansion between journalists in Paris, as well as silence the voice of anti-democratic experience in Iraq," according to his words.

The tailor worked in several media organizations in Iraq during the past four years, such as the fallopian Fayhaa and Iraqi as well as a correspondent for the Japanese news agency before deciding to seek asylum in France and stay in the end of 2008.

Batchelor: Landlocked‏

2009-12-03T18:50:00.008-06:00

A cross post from The Real Barack Obama,

John Batchelor writes on his blog:

No Roads

Frank Oliveri and Bill Roggio both elaborated on the particular challenges of moving 30 thousand combat troops into Afghanistan in the next six months. The critical fact is that this is a landlocked country -- and this increases the costs, the demands on transportation, the expectations of deployment.

Frank Oliveri called 10th Mountain and the Marines, and both said they were ready to go now, pending transportation.

Bill Roggio presented the case that getting that many combat troops into Kandahar province and environs in this six month period, including winter, is so daunting that it isn't how well, it is if at all.

Spoke to Ann Marlowe at Kabul, and she reported on dinner conversation with unnamed American colonels after POTUS speech at West Point. The general opinion is that getting those troops into Afghanistan is beyond the logistics that exist now. There wasn't laughter. Just head shaking.

Ann Marlowe also emphasized that once the troops reach Afghanistan, especially in the South and East, the logistics inside the country are spare. There is already a chronic shortage of aircraft. The roads except in select places are treacherous and nonexistent. The culverts built by the contractors are routine places for the Taliban to plant IEDs. Mostly, Ann Marlowe emphasized the forbidding nature of the countryside. It is moon like. It is the home court of the Taliban. She mentioned that it can take 12 hours to go 40 kilometers. Six months to deploy, eighteen months to start the handover. Not on a landlocked clock.

Middle of the No Roads

Also spoke to Peter Wallsten, WSJ, (above) re the politics the day after the POTUS speech. He reported that neither the Left nor the Right supports the decision. POTUS is in the middle of partisan noise now, and there is no center to stand with him -- no middle of the no roads.

Gallup reports that the POTUS approval on Afghanistan policy has declined from over 50% to 35%. Wallsten remarked that Democrats in primary races are running hard left, anti-war and anti-Obama policy on Afghanistan. The people who elected POTUS are now walking away, or, as Wallsten said for the elections in 2010, the base support of POTUS and the Democrats is ready to stay home. The testimony by the three chieftains, Clinton, Gates and Mullen, only reinforced the measure that only those who work for POTUS are following POTUS down that lonely middle.

12-3-2009 - Pence Discusses Republican Economic Roundtable on CNBC

2009-12-03T18:42:00.002-06:00

Pense talking sense on Jobs.

Also, Gary Andres compares Texas and California over at The Weekly Standard,

Texas, on the other hand, with its more entrepreneurial political culture, created 70 percent of the new jobs in the United States in 2008, according to the Trends article. Think about it, one state created 7 out of 10 jobs!

The White House jobs summit is a public relations gambit, not a serious employment generator. In fairness to the president, he has to do something. This is the Obama equivalent of the infamous George H. W. Bush line: "Message: I care." But the real problem is one of cognitive dissonance for the entrepreneur.

While Obama says he wants to create jobs, his interest group allies stand in the way. Jobs producers need litigation reform (the trial bar opposes it); they seek lower taxes (public employee unions don't); they want streamlined environmental regulations (environmental interest groups say no).

"Go West Young Man," a Terre Haute Express editorial wrote in 1851. That's still good advice today for a president seeking a jobs agenda. But he ought to stop at Texas.

Texas created seven out of ten jobs in America during 2008. That's an astounding statistic.

Gibb's on Prez Obama's SecDef Gates

2009-12-03T18:35:00.001-06:00

Somebody's gotta tell Gibbs which team he's on. Gates's Obama's SecDef. Quit slamming a teammate Mr. Gibbs! Via The Weekly Standard Blog.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seems to have a real problem with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Either that or Gibbs is so dim that he doesn't realize that when he misrepresents Afghanistan troop requests at the end of the Bush administration he's trashing Gates -- President Obama's top defense policymaker.

On Tuesday night, President Obama made the following claim: "Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive. That’s why, shortly after taking office, I approved a long-standing request for more troops."

At the White House briefing yesterday, ABC's Jake Tapper pressed Robert Gibbs about the claim and asked him to specify when such requests took place.

Gibbs: "Again, what President Obama was talking about were additional resource requests that came in during 2008, which we've discussed in here."

Robert Gates was Defense Secretary in 2008. Barack Obama kept him in that job and, according to numerous accounts of his decision to sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, relied heavily on advice from Gates in coming up with his new strategy. So is Gates to blame for these resource requests that did not arrive?

Gibbs is right about one thing. Those requests from 2008 had been discussed at the briefings before. What he failed to mention is that he was wrong back then, too. A Pentagon official close to Gates, speaking of the WH claims, told TWS, "on the facts, they're wrong."

The nutty left is destroying the sane center of the Democratic Party

2009-12-03T18:29:00.002-06:00

Take away quote from today’s blogger conference call with House Chief Deputy Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA_ and Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) in response to a question about Blue Dog Democrats retiring rather than face steep uphill campaigns next year:

The nutty left is destroying the sane center of the Democratic Party.

Look no further than Lisa Madigan’s decision not to run for Governor of Illinois next year. That’s gotta be a calculation by the Madigans --some of the shrewdest Democratic minds around-- that Obama’s making a mash of America and it’s no reason to go down with this shape. Mike Madigan knows these Democrats America’s sent to Washington better than almost anyone. That family sits things out, Democrats should know they’re in a deep mess with Obama.

Footenote: Politico on Blue Dog John Tanner to retire from House.

Gotta wonder if Bill Foster --one of the Richest Guys in Congress-- has to be having second thoughts on plowing his own dough into a reelection instead of buying a new home in the Hamptons, Long Island or something.

Obama Salutes

2009-11-26T09:30:00.001-06:00

CC chastises failures to google.

Made me recall Blackfive's recent post on Obama Salutes, and this link to the NYT. Reagan started the practice.....

Presidents have long been saluted, but they began returning salutes relatively recently. Ronald Reagan was thought to be the first, in 1981. He had sought advice on the matter from Gen. Robert Barrow, commandant of the Marine Corps. According to John Kline, then Mr. Reagan’s military aide and today a member of Congress from Minnesota, General Barrow told the president that as commander in chief he could salute anybody he wished. And so it began.

Mr. Reagan’s successors continued the practice, and I continued to be conflicted — believing that when it comes to salutes (and one or two other matters), presidents deserved to be cut some slack, but also feeling a little uneasy about the whole thing.

My ambivalence came to an end last week, when I saw a videotape of the president’s midnight trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where he had participated, very early that morning, in the “dignified transfer” of 15 Army soldiers and three Drug Enforcement Administration agents killed that week in Afghanistan. Mr. Obama stood ramrod straight and saluted as six soldiers carried the coffin bearing the body of Sgt. Dale Griffin of Indiana off a C-17 transport aircraft and into a waiting van. His salute, it struck me, was impeccable in every way.

I'm guessing after Obama announces his new Af-Pak strategy next week, I'll be Obama's defender here, and the anti-Obama emails in need of research we'll be flying the other way.

Congressman Danny Davis's policy adviser guilty of fraud

2009-11-26T08:26:00.001-06:00

Maybe I missed it all, but this story sure didn't seem to make Chicago's legacy media at all. Via Politico,

A senior policy fellow for Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) has pleaded guilty to defrauding the government and private lenders of nearly $822,000 by using aliases to obtain student loans and more than 90 credit cards.

Ernest B. Moore, who went by Bernard Moore and Bernard Glenn-Moore on Capitol Hill, had a penchant for putting together events with marquee names — and a special legislative interest in sentencing issues and measures like the “Second Chance Act,” which is designed to help nonviolent offenders reabsorb into society.

“Who knew that he was writing that bill for himself?” quipped a former congressional aide who knows Moore.

In defense of Empire

2009-11-26T08:10:00.002-06:00

From an interview with Jan Urban,

What is your take on the Czech Republic today?

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am enjoying every day. On the other hand, I was born Czechoslovak and educated Czechoslovak. To people like myself, the Czech Republic was an entirely different concept. I did not like being defined by my language. I think that I am much more complicated. I want to be much more complicated. I believe that if you are looking for the most tragic mistake in European history it is acceptance of the concept of language-based nationalism.

Just yesterday I was giving a lecture in Vienna and said a hundred years ago Vienna was my capital. We only had one political system, one parliament, one currency, one transportation system. After two world wars and the expulsion of millions, are we any wiser?

As we get closer to 2014 and the centennial of the start of WW1 expect more on what was lost with multicultural i.e. multilignual Empires.

Marathon Pundit: Ex-con Robert Creamer, husband of Rep. Jan Schakowsky, guest at tonight's White House state dinner

2009-11-26T07:41:00.003-06:00

John notes a well-known Chicago Political name at Obama's first state dinner,

Robert Creamer, the husband of my congresscritter, Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), attended tonight's White House state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Schakowsky was of course also there, but she is not a convicted felon. Hubby is.

And the Southside's finest, Pat Hickey comments,

I'll his first wrds to Eric Hoilder were, "Pardon Me!"

Yep, quite a crowd we've given America.

The Dawn's Editorial on US Taliban Covert Talks

2009-11-26T07:35:00.002-06:00

The closing paras from The Dawn's Editorial,

Ultimately, there has to be a negotiated end to the war. The issue is how to go about it. Do you talk to the enemy from a position of weakness, as Pakistan did during the Musharraf era and learned to its sorrow that this approach only served to strengthen the rebels? Or do you talk from a position of strength? To think that Hamid Karzai could help in this regard is to be naive.

Going by what Richard Holbrooke said on Monday, Washington has been in touch with Islamabad on the new AfPak policy yet to be unveiled. Pakistan has vital stakes in the outcome of the war.

All one hopes is that a phoney peace will not be achieved for the sake of a hurried withdrawal to placate an increasingly sceptical public in the West.

The Obama administration and those involved in back-channel probes must realise how dangerous it would be to quit Afghanistan in a manner that leaves the Taliban in a dominant position.

My emphasis on the final two paragraphs. I hoe this is not the route we're headed towards.

Also Bill Roggio on the Pak Army's hedging it's bets Pakistan hedges on Taliban as West seeks talks: Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/11/pakistan_hedges_on_taliban_as.php#ixzz0XyKfM08U

A perception of this wavering has also influenced the Pakistani military. An armed forces spokesperson claimed recently that the army had reached the headquarters of the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan after a month-long campaign, and taken control of all key positions. The next step, under pressure from the US, was to have been to move into neighboring North Waziristan, the purported headquarters of al-Qaeda and the largest Taliban-led group, the Haqqani network.

However, the military, given the signals coming out of Britain, Italy, France and Canada, and the dithering of US President Barack Obama over sending more troops to Afghanistan, is not prepared at this point to extend its operations.

Rev Meeks and Dan Proft: stout of heart bipartisanship

2009-11-23T18:59:00.002-06:00

A Proft Press Release. This is why I like they guy. He's not afraid to throw a few rocks and team up with Obama's Spiritual Advisor on an issue where African Americans have long been stiffed by the Democrat / Teacher's Union strangle hold on schools.

Meeks Provides Model for ILGOP on K-12: Take the Fight not the Money

November 23, 2009

You cannot be on the dole of the teachers’ unions and be a credible, effective agent for system change of K-12 in Illinois.

It is on this basis that I have called for Illinois Republicans to stop taking campaign cash from the teachers’ unions.

Two of my opponents, State Sens. Kirk Dillard and Bill Brady, have taken tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions from the teachers’ unions and show no willingness to stop. Perhaps that explains why neither has introduced any meaningful K-12 legislation in their 15 years in the Illinois General Assembly.

Another opponent, Andy McKenna, the counterfeit “outsider”, is backed by Springfield insiders like House GOP Leader Tom Cross who has operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Illinois Education Association during his tenure. Perhaps this explains why McKenna offers little more than empty bromides like “we need to do whatever it takes” to improve K-12 without ever defining what the “whatever” looks like.

Contrast this with the bold step forward State Senator James Meeks, a Chicago Democrat, has taken to introduce school choice legislation for families whose children are relegated to failing schools in Chicago.

For breaking from the ranks of those who protect the status quo at the expense of children deprived of the opportunity to earn a quality education, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) vowed not to give Meeks any more campaign cash.

Sen. Meeks’ response? He wrote a check back to the CTU for the $4,000 they had contributed to date.

The message from Sen. Meeks to CTU is clear: I don’t want your blood money.

If only the ILGOP was as stout of heart.

If only the ILGOP was willing to stop taking the money and start taking the fight to the teachers’ unions who preside like Soviet apparatchiks over failing K-12 systems in Chicago, Rockford, Peoria, Decatur, Springfield, East St. Louis and throughout Illinois where children from low-income families are discriminated against based on their address and household income in terms of the educational opportunities they can access.

I am the one candidate for Governor willing and able to fill this leadership vacuum for the Illinois Republican Party.

I am the one candidate for Governor who has advanced a statewide school choice plan that expands educational opportunities by changing how the money flows and who gets to make spending decisions as it pertains to the education of our young people. Under my plan, we invest in families and let them choose the best course for their children. Under my plan, we stop financing command control bureaucracies and moribund teachers’ unions.

Last week, I had a productive meeting with Sen. Meeks on this very topic. We have slightly different roadmaps when it comes to school choice but share a common destination: a child-centered K-12 system that focuses on educational outputs.

As Governor, with the leadership of legislators like Sen. Meeks, we can build the necessary coalition across party lines to advance a school choice policy that provides every child in Illinois with a legitimate opportunity to be a successful, independent adult able to effectively compete in our global, digital economy.

Abdul Rahim Wardak on Obama's long awaited and over elaborated decisions.

2009-11-22T05:12:00.000-06:00

Al Jeezera via Bill Roggio's Long War Journal,

Abdul Rahim Wardak, Afghanistan's Defense Minister announced the Afghan Army would be expanded to more than 240,000 soldiers. Wardak described President Obama's process to decide on a US increase in troops as "long awaited and over-elaborated," which prompted laughter from the senior US generals in attendance, including General Stanley McChrystal.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/videos/2009/11/afghanistan_to_expand_army_to.php#ixzz0XaLtVBQU

Long awaited and over-elaborated.... no way for a Commander-in-Chief to be seen.

Sam Shem at HIS talk on Mammograms and Health Care

2009-11-20T06:10:00.001-06:00

at HIS Talk today,

Re: mammograms. An independent body, after review and analysis of eight clinical trials, comes out with EVIDENCE that mammogram screening in under-40-year-olds has little or no value. What happens? The radiologists are up in arms and the Obama administration, in the person of DHHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, tells patients to just keep doing what you did last year. And they want to cut costs by a billion dollars over the next decade to pay for national health insurance? If anyone really believes this country will ever control the costs of health care, they are living in a dream land!”

Interesting, too, that nobody’s paying much attention to the study that showed that electronic medical records haven’t improved outcomes or cost so far, even as the government is spending lots of money on those, too. At least EHRs have potential. In an economy where jobs are dying out, politicians don’t have the guts to make serious change since the people unhappy with health care don’t have the clout of those who like it just fine. I cited statistics here years ago saying that health care was making a staggering economy look robust because of rising costs, profits, and high employment, all unsustainable in a global economy.

I suppose the question then is how confident anyone can be the government as opposed to markets can make Health Care a sustainable sector in the economy.

Considering the Gov's placing its bets on tick-box medicine, voodoo economics on preventive med, and EHR; I'm not very confident. I think it has to do with politicians guts and lack there of. Sarah Palin maybe? She has guts.

xp My Medical Informatics Blog

Dan Proft tackles Cicero

2009-11-18T19:09:00.003-06:00

I wondered when he was going to do it. Here's his letter over at Illinois Review in response to Carol Marin.

The most effective response may be over at Kass though,

All this talk of reform is exciting, except for one thing. Proft has a problem. It's the size of Cicero. That doesn't necessarily disqualify him. But when a candidate is linked to Cicero, that candidate finds himself on the defensive.

For years Proft's public relations firm has reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees from governments in and around Cicero, not exactly the most reformish hamlet in the state.

My colleague at the Sun-Times, Carol Marin, has been merciless in dissecting Proft. She's made Cicero a special study for years. If Proft thought that one day he'd run for governor, he should have stayed out of the town that Al Capone built.

"I'm not here to try and convince you that Cicero is Mayberry," Proft said. "People can play that guilt-by-association game. I had a responsibility to a client, to represent their interests, just like an attorney would, just like any professional would. And that's what I did."

Proft noted he's also had contracts with Hinsdale.

"Nobody wants to talk about my negotiated contract with Hinsdale, because Hinsdale isn't sexy," Proft said.

I agree. Hinsdale is a nice town, but you wouldn't say it's sexy.

Nice...Hinsdale, and yeah Cicero ain't Mayberry, and we really wouldn't want it that way either.

So this gonna work?

I like Proft, so I hope so.

xp Prairie Politics

Graham Presses Holder On Reading Osama Bin Laden Miranda Rights

2009-11-18T18:41:00.002-06:00

I watched bits-and-pieces today but thought this was pretty powerful.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: "If you're gonna prosecute anybody in civilian court, our law is clear that the moment custodial interrogation occurs, the defendant, the criminal defendant, is entitled to a lawyer and to be informed of their right to remain silent. The big problem I have is you're criminalizing the war, that if we caught bin Laden tomorrow, we have mixed theories and couldn't turn him over to the CIA, the FBI, military intelligence for an interrogation on the battlefield, because now you're saying he's subject to criminal court in the United States and you're confusing the people fighting this war."

Follow the link for the video, or the full exchange here,

Congressman Hoekstra on Thomson Prison and Fear

2009-11-18T17:16:00.001-06:00

I asked for his assessment of the threat to Illinois by placing Gitmo detainees at Thomson. He said folks should just ask for the same information on the Gitmo detainees as is available to him and the other members of the House Intelligence Committee. Everyone can make their own threat assessments. Hoekstra thinks when the average American knows what he and the committee knows, we'll all want to keep these guys in Cuba.

So ok Congressman Bill Foster, how about telling all of us in Illinois's 14th district the full bio's on these fellows the administration proposes to haul up to Illinois?

Let us all make our own assessments on how much of a target we're making Illinois.

GOP Blogger Conference call on Gitmo, NYC terrorist trials and Ft. Hood shootings

2009-11-18T16:27:00.005-06:00

Hoekstra's starting:

Re: Fort Hood: Hoekstra was one of the first to call this a terrorist act by a self-radicalized American. He says we've only seen the tip of the iceberg, we will see much more coming out on where the whole process broke down to allow Hasan to function much less be deployed to A-stan. How did Hasan get good performance reviews? (Hoeksta has seen?) H believes there is serious evidence to consider as a terrorist attack.

Re: KSM trial. Attack American civilians and you get a civil trial. All stems from O's ill fated Jan 22, 2009 decision to close Gitmo. Jack Reed's comment on Fox Sunday in reply to what do we do if KSM acquitted, and Reed said we'd still hold them, was an embarrassment. If we missed the deadline on Gitmo closing, we may very well miss the deadline on the trial and these guys may well go free.

Hoeksta mentions the John Adams project and says start researching them, and ask which side their on?

What's update on Patriot Act? It's getting hung up on definition of lone wolf. Administration is in free fall on the act with three key provisions getting set to expire.

Doesn't the trial put our whole Intel Apparatus on trial? H: amen.

We can fully expect AQ will use a trial to expose US Intel Methods and they will use the John Adam's project as an ally.

Re: Thomson and a threat assessment. Ask for the same information House Intel has and let everyone make their own threat assessment. Average American gets that and will say whow... now we know we have Gitmo in Cuba.

Illinois GOP: When Will Bill Foster End His Silence on Great Lakes Gitmo?

2009-11-18T10:22:00.002-06:00

Foster's one tight lipped Rep, that's for sure. The latest from the Illinois GOP.

When Will Bill Foster End His Silence on Great Lakes Gitmo?
Foster voted against bringing terrorists to U.S. soil last month;
Bean opposes transfer as polling shows 57% oppose in Illinois
CHICAGO – Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady today called on Congressman Bill Foster to end his silence on Governor Quinn and Senator Durbin’s plan to build a new Gitmo facility in Thomson, Illinois to house up to 215 Al Qaeda terrorists.
On October 15, 2009, Foster was one of only 25 Democrats in Congress who voted to keep Gitmo open and strip language from the Homeland Security Appropriations bill allowing terrorists to come to the United States for civilian prosecution (Roll Call 783). But when asked his view on the Quinn-Durbin plan to bring Al Qaeda terrorists to Illinois, Foster told the Daily Herald he was “still studying the issue.”
“Bill Foster was not sent to Congress to sit on the sidelines. I hope Bill Foster will have the courage to do what’s right and oppose bringing Al Qaeda terrorists to Illinois,” Brady said
According to a survey of 1,781 likely Illinois voters conducted Monday night, less than one-third of Illinois voters support a plan to move terrorists from Gitmo to Thomson, Illinois while 57 percent call it a “bad idea.” Sixty percent of women and 58 percent of independents oppose the plan. Even Democrats narrowly oppose the plan, 44.5 percent to 43 percent.
Yesterday, Democratic Congresswoman Melissa Bean told the Lake County News Sun and the Daily Herald she opposes transferring Guantanamo detainees to Illinois without substantial assurances regarding potential security threats.

Mark Kirk on Great Lakes Gitmo

2009-11-18T09:28:00.001-06:00

Phoney Illinois Congressional Districts at Recovery.gov

2009-11-18T08:42:00.002-06:00

sheez... via WatchDog.org

Federal stimulus dollars were used to help laid off congressional districts in Illinois, according to Recovery.gov. In fact, nearly $500,000 was directed towards the 20th District, which lost its job following the 2000 census. That’s not all, $2.4 million was sent to the district’s retired compatriots–the 21st and 22nd–which were done away with after the 1990 census.

All told, $6.6 million was distributed to six districts, which do not exist.
A Watchdog study revealed 440 non-existent congressional districts within the stimulus tracking web site, recovery.org. The full report can be found here .....

...we don’t hear much from the Awami Party folks other than their death notices.

2009-11-18T08:17:00.001-06:00

Neo's comment over at Long War Journal about a party in Pakistan like minded westerners do ignore. Librealism's huge inexplicable failure to defend Liberal Islam.

It should be said that the Awami Party is not anti-Taliban, per se, but against the violence of both the Taliban and their government opponents. There movement is very much in the passive resistance activist mold, although they do not outright proscribe strict pacifism. The do tend to mirror western passive resistance movements in many ways. For much of the conflict they tended to be sympathetic to the plight of Pashtoons who joined the Taliban and blamed the Pakistani government and western powers as the ultimate source of conflict.

The Awami Party did rather well in regional elections only two years ago. At the time the Taliban intimidated them quite a bit, but found their votes temporarily useful for for drawing off PPP votes, and for the Awami stand against “America’s war” in Pakistan. Since then, the Taliban has declared open season on them and we don’t hear much from the Awami Party folks other than their death notices.

One would think the plight of the Awami Party would be an example to like minded westerners, but they are virtually invisible in the western press. I would tend to think of them as the canary in the coal mine for any prospects of pacifying the Taliban.

Here's Awami's blog.

Charlie Cook, what's so smart about building a bi partisan opposition to Obama Care?

2009-11-18T08:00:00.002-06:00

From Charlie Cook yesterday,

The key to victory was that Pelosi and Emanuel understood that their relatively new House majority is built on a layer of conservative-leaning districts won under perfect conditions in 2006 and 2008. And the two actively discourage members from some of those districts from voting in ways that would be construed as out of tune with their constituents. When the House passed Democrats' cap-and-trade energy legislation in June, for example, 44 Democrats joined 168 Republicans in voting no. Twenty-nine of those Democrats were from districts that President Obama failed to carry in 2008. Likewise, when the House approved Democrats' health care legislation, 39 Democrats, including 32 from districts that Obama lost, joined all but one Republican in voting no.

So what's so smart about building a bipartisan coalition against Obama and Pelosi care?

Thomson, Mumbai, and it can't happen in Illinois?

2009-11-18T07:14:00.002-06:00

PJ Media Yesterday: U.S. Now Exports Terror: American Linked to Mumbai Attack

Late last month, two arrests in Chicago seemed to confirm a pattern of American citizens wishing to engage in acts of terror abroad but failing. But new reports from India indicate that at least one of the two arrested may have been involved in planning the coordinated attacks in Mumbai last year. Those attacks killed 173 people and have been described as India’s 9/11.

If these reports pan out, then a Chicago-area man who legally changed his name from Daood Gilani to David Headley — and who had previously been indicted for planning a foiled terror attack against Denmark’s Jylland Posten newspaper as “revenge” for printing cartoons of the prophet Mohammad — conducted surveillance of targets in Mumbai. He helped facilitate the massacre in which innocent civilians were methodically gunned down at the real-time urging of their Lashkar-e-Taiba controllers from Pakistan.

and Bill Roggio: Pakistani generals linked to US terror suspects

There are reports that one or both of the two unnamed Pakistani conspirators who worked with Rana and Headley are Pakistani military officers. My sources said that Rana's brothers are not the unnamed suspects.

Headley is suspected of scouting Mumbai for the Lashkar-e-Taiba prior to the deadly 62-hour terror assault on the city that left more than 170 dead. Headley spent 10 days at the Taj Hotel, which was one of the primary targets of the Lashkar-e-Taiba operation in Mumbai.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2009/11/pakistani_generals_linked_to_u.php#ixzz0XDf2h0UQ

So, wouldn't a Gitmo North in Thomson Illinois have offered these guys a hugely symbolic target a lot closer to home?